Day 10: Mucho Loco

Whew… 3 days until I’m home.

Today was a little crazy. This morning we drove into this huge city in the mountains (a little past Las Plias, the other mountain village) to visit Elbia. Elbia is a girl (10 maybe?) whom Cristo Salva discovered begging in the La Entrada bakery. They gave her money, but she turned and gave it to another beggar, one poorer than her. Since then Cristo Salva has regularly supported her. The second we arrived at her house she ran up to the van, hugging and kissing every one of us. She lives in extreme poverty with her parents and several siblings, who are all sponsored by Cristo Salva. While there, Kelsey & I handed out uniforms, then I helped Dan teach the family how to treat the youngest child’s ear infection. After a long goodbye we returned to the farm for lunch, then back to the clinic.

Mrs. Pat said that today was one of the worst days they have ever seen at the clinic. I worked with Dan the whole time. I helped treat an eye infection, a heat rash, ear infections, eczema, and told one lady that she was pregnant. It’s somewhat entertaining how people come in with one problem, which turns into about 5 problems, and they leave with a grocery bag full of pills. Outside of our “room” there were much crazier things going on.

One set of twins would need to be sent to the States as soon as they were born in order to receive treatment for a heart condition. Mrs. Pat located a doctor who would deliver them and found a way to get them to Miami. One lady was pregnant with Siamese twins that were joined at the abdomen. Luckily we found a hospital that would deliver them and arrange for them to be sent to Miami to be separated. One man had to be rushed to the hospital in Sula because he had been shot in the face over a land dispute and his jaw had been shattered – by that I mean he was holding his jaw up with his hand and the bullet was still in his neck. A 28-year-old woman had a stroke, which is believed to have been caused by a certain bug native to Honduras that is known for biting babies, which results in major problems like strokes, aneurisms, and heart attacks 25-30 years later. One boy has a disease that causes him to age rapidly. The very worst was a little boy with cancer. A massive tumor had developed in his face, which forced him to wear a mask and stay home from school. The tumor had swollen his eyes shut and severely distorted the position of everything else on his face. There is no treatment, especially since his family has no money. We prayed for him, which is more powerful than any medicine, and sent him on with some stuffed animals and plenty of juice boxes.

The one upside of the day was another boy with cancer. The last time he came into the clinic he was diagnosed with cancer and sent to the hospital, where it was confirmed. The Cristo Salva team prayed for him before he was sent into surgery in Sula. When the surgeons went into his stomach to remove the cancer, there was nothing there.

After the clinic we walked to Maria’s house to eat and, once again, it was delicious.